Text Leads To School Evacuation

Students and staff at Roxana Junior and Senior High School will be back in class today, hopefully with little excitement other than class work. On Tuesday, a text message from a student indicating there had been shots fired inside the school sent police flooding to the scene, and staff members placing the school on lock-down as a precaution. The message was false.

The incident began just after 1pm, and the school was on lock-down for about an hour before the all clear was sounded. Roxana Police Chief Will Cunningham would not say what the message contained, but indicated the text message from the student was sent to a family member who then notified authorities. Roxana School District Superintendent Debra Kreutztrager credits first responders for being ready to deal with the situation quickly and professionally:

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Police and other first responders from Roxana, Wood River, South Roxana, Hartford, Bethalto, Madison County, Illinois State Police, Granite City, East Alton and others responded to the scene. Police say so far they have one person of interest, and the investigation continues.

Audio in this story is courtesy of Riverbender.com.

Here is video of a news conference held Tuesday afternoon, provided by Riverbender.com.

This is the statement released by the school district Tuesday afternoon:

From the Roxana School District: "The Jr./Sr. High went on lockdown this afternoon due to a text message that was sent from a student stating that there were shots fired at the High School. Local responders took action immediately to initiate lockdown procedures. Local responders from all area police forces were on campus quickly to address the situation. The student was found and it is confirmed that there were NO Shots fired. All students are returning to their regular schedules. A special thank you to our staff and local responders for their quick action today."